Pinnacle Studio 18 review
We upgraded to Pinnacle Studio 18 recently, and wow I'm glad we did. We have the Ultimate version which is made to work with 64 bit computers. This makes a huge impact on the actual editing process, as everything is much snappier--adding titles, adding special effects, working with video footage--everything is much faster. So far it doesn't seem to make that much of a difference in the actual rendering of the dvd project, but it's well worth it for the actual video editing.
There are alot of really nice extra effects including some effects packs from New Blue. They are ones that most video editors will use daily, and seem to be geared for the types of family and business editing that most of us do.
Studio 18 includes support for HD and 4K (if your computer is fast enough to work with those types of files); includes izotope music and speech cleaner; allows for bluray disc creation (if you have a bluray burner); includes 3D features (which we never use); includes 2000 transitions, effects, templates and menus; allows for unlimited editing tracks for superior editing capabilities; works with Sonifire music if you buy the optional plugin (and you've updated to the latest patches); includes Scorefitter and some other free royalty free music; photo slideshow features; and many other features.
We had been using Studio 16 for quite a long time, and it worked pretty well but was made for 32 bit computers. For our video to dvd transfer projects it worked quite well. We decided to upgrade to Pinnacle Studio 17 and it was a disaster--the program was crashing constantly and caused us enough grief to return it for a refund. We were a bit skeptical to upgrade to Studio 18 but now we're in video editing heaven!
We normally don't recommend new products so quickly, but Studio 18 is definitely ready for prime time. Give it a shot--you can request a refund within the first 30 days if it doesn't meet your video to dvd editing needs.
